Transcript History of Great Britain Pre – Celtic Period – (before 800 BC) • Stonehenge Celtic Period (800 BC – AD 43) • Iron Age • Brythons.

History of
Great Britain
Pre – Celtic Period – (before 800 BC)
• Stonehenge
Celtic Period (800 BC – AD 43)
• Iron Age
• Brythons (indigenous peoples inhabiting the
island of Great Britain south of the river Forth) –
the name Britain
Roman Period (AD 43 – 410)
• network of roads
• Hadrian’s Wall
Anglo – Saxon Period (410 – 1066)
• 7th century – 7 kingdoms (Heptarchy)
Northumbria, Mercia, Kent, East Anglia,
Essex, Sussex and Wessex– various dialects of
English
• 829 – Egbert – King of Wessex united them ->
1st English King
• 9th century – Vikings
Norman Period (1066 – 1154)
• 1066 – the Battle of Hastings – Normans led
by William, Duke of Normandy
(William the Conqueror) defeated
the Saxon King Harold
• French nobility – influence on language
• William was crowned king on Christmas Day,
1066 at Westminster Abbey
Magna Carta
• signed by King John in 1215
• guarantee of rights and rule of law
• accept that King‘s will could be
bound by the law
the Hundred’s Year War
• 1338 – 1453
• conflict between two royal houses
for the French throne
• England (House of Plantagenet)
defeated
the Wars of the Roses
• 1455 – 1485
• series of dynastic civil wars
• the House of Lancaster (red rose) X the House
of York (white rose)
• Henry Tudor (Lanc.) defeated Richard III (York)
-> Henry VII , he married Elizabeth of York ->
end of fighting
Other important events
• 1543 – the Church of England separated from the
authority of the Pope
• 1558 – 1603 - Queen Elizabeth I – Britain – major sea
power
• 1642 – 1649 – Civil War
(Charles I against supporters of Parliament) ->
Oliver Cromwell established a republic;
1660 – monarchy restored
• 1688 – Glorious Revolution – confirmation of the
sovereignty of Parliament
• 1760s – 1850s – the Industrial Revolution –
industrialisation and urbanisation (technological
innovations, extension of the right to vote, formation
of trade unions, development of universal public
education)
• 1815 – defeat of Napoleon – Britain’s role
strengthened its position as the leading world power
1837 – 1901 – reign of Queen Victoria
• 63 years and seven
months, longer than that
of any other British
monarch
• Victorian era, a time of
industrial, political, and
military progress within
the United Kingdom
• great expansion of the
British Empire; large parts
of Africa and Asia added
• married her first cousin,
Prince Albert (became
favourite)
• World War I – huge casualties and economic losses
• 1921 – independence of Ireland
• 1927 – the formal name of the UK changed to
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland
• World War II – great bombing damage, the Battle of
Britain (mainly 1940)